Well, it seems like an age since I posted actual knitting progress, but before I do, I'll write a little about the porch furniture refinishing adventure. One of my friends at the yarn shop asked me, "How's the stripping going?" That got a few laughs from around the room, since everyone pretty much did a double take, then remembered that, as a matter of fact, I was stripping. Stripping porch furniture, anyway.
Good Friday was a day off work for me, and I had a few errands to run, so by mid-afternoon I was ready to apply the citrus-scented stripper. Once I got the chair completely coated, I did a little test scraping, to see how long I should wait. It revealed two colors: blue just below and orange below the blue (in the stamped areas I found white). Exciting! Since I had another errand to run, I left it for a few more hours and checked again, but it still needed to steep.
The next morning, I went at the chair in earnest, scraping away. After about two hours or so, I was able to break out the steel wool, so I could get in the crevices in the stamped area. Many, many steel sheepies have had to go naked for this project, and many more will in future. I think I'll give it one more shot with the stripper, then start on the repaint.
In knitting news, I have pics of the finished Vesper, which I wore on Easter and which my in-laws were gracious enough to coo over. It made me blush a little, but I still loved it! Really, who doesn't love a compliment? After washing and blocking, the yarn softened up beautifully. This is fast becoming my favorite thing I've knit for myself.
I've also made quite a lot of progress on the Kusha Kusha scarf. Mostly I've been working on it during social knitting, as it's just stockinette and I have something like 30 inches more to do before I can change needles sizes. It looks a little rumpled in the photo because I spent a good part of Easter Sunday scrunching it so that my nieces and nephews could see how the stainless steel yarn behaved. They were duly awestruck. I'm not sure that keeps me from being the strange aunt who takes her knitting everywhere, but at least they're acting like they're interested.
I'm not sure whether I've mentioned that I've cast on for Vacation in the Mountains, a Stephanie van der Linden pattern from her book Around the World in Knitted Socks. It's a pretty straightforward pattern, traveling stitches on a reverse stockinette field. Nothing to it. I made all kinds of progress on it Sunday, as it was at least three hours to get to my husband's parents' house for Easter. I'm nearly halfway through the second repeat of the leg chart, so if all goes well, I could be turning the heel this weekend.
I think that's all I've got for now. It's been raining and raining the last few days, so much so that the Ohio River is about 6 feet above flood stage and will probably continue to rise. As of last night, we hadn't seen the floodgates installed in the wall next to our old house, but if we see much more rain, they could be going in. I hope for sun and a little drying out. Until next time, then.
Good Friday was a day off work for me, and I had a few errands to run, so by mid-afternoon I was ready to apply the citrus-scented stripper. Once I got the chair completely coated, I did a little test scraping, to see how long I should wait. It revealed two colors: blue just below and orange below the blue (in the stamped areas I found white). Exciting! Since I had another errand to run, I left it for a few more hours and checked again, but it still needed to steep.
The next morning, I went at the chair in earnest, scraping away. After about two hours or so, I was able to break out the steel wool, so I could get in the crevices in the stamped area. Many, many steel sheepies have had to go naked for this project, and many more will in future. I think I'll give it one more shot with the stripper, then start on the repaint.
In knitting news, I have pics of the finished Vesper, which I wore on Easter and which my in-laws were gracious enough to coo over. It made me blush a little, but I still loved it! Really, who doesn't love a compliment? After washing and blocking, the yarn softened up beautifully. This is fast becoming my favorite thing I've knit for myself.
I've also made quite a lot of progress on the Kusha Kusha scarf. Mostly I've been working on it during social knitting, as it's just stockinette and I have something like 30 inches more to do before I can change needles sizes. It looks a little rumpled in the photo because I spent a good part of Easter Sunday scrunching it so that my nieces and nephews could see how the stainless steel yarn behaved. They were duly awestruck. I'm not sure that keeps me from being the strange aunt who takes her knitting everywhere, but at least they're acting like they're interested.
I'm not sure whether I've mentioned that I've cast on for Vacation in the Mountains, a Stephanie van der Linden pattern from her book Around the World in Knitted Socks. It's a pretty straightforward pattern, traveling stitches on a reverse stockinette field. Nothing to it. I made all kinds of progress on it Sunday, as it was at least three hours to get to my husband's parents' house for Easter. I'm nearly halfway through the second repeat of the leg chart, so if all goes well, I could be turning the heel this weekend.
I think that's all I've got for now. It's been raining and raining the last few days, so much so that the Ohio River is about 6 feet above flood stage and will probably continue to rise. As of last night, we hadn't seen the floodgates installed in the wall next to our old house, but if we see much more rain, they could be going in. I hope for sun and a little drying out. Until next time, then.
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